


Changes

by GothicDeetz



Category: Beetlejuice - All Media Types, Beetlejuice - Perfect/Brown & King
Genre: Cancer, Canon, Canon Related, Cutting, Death, Depression, During Canon, First Meetings, Gen, Loss of Parent(s), Mentions of Cancer, Moving, Moving On, Moving Out, Pre-Canon, Pre-Relationship, Retelling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-11
Updated: 2020-05-11
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:41:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24131497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GothicDeetz/pseuds/GothicDeetz
Summary: After everything she’s been through, Lydia has a hard time adapting to all the changes in her life.
Relationships: Charles Deetz/Delia Deetz
Kudos: 13





	Changes

Lydia and her dad, Charles, stood by her dying mother’s bedside, holding her hands as the woman slowly started to lose her life to cancer - which Lydia’s mom had been fighting for the past year and a half. When Emily first caught the cancer, she was given a 75% chance of survival.

It had quickly gone down to a 50% chance that Emily would survive. Then 45%. A couple weeks ago, it had gone down to a 25% chance of survival and this morning, the chance of Emily’s survival had gone all the way down to 5%. Emily wasn’t going to make it.

The night before his wife’s death, Charles had called Lydia’s school and told them that she wasn’t going to be in for a few days...to come in terms with her mother’s passing.

Emily Deetz slipped away peacefully, her husband and daughter by her bedside, at the end of the year 2019. Her last words were, “I love you both. Take care of each other.”

* * *

Not long after Emily’s passing, Charles began to notice that Lydia wasn’t the same as she once was...dressing head to toe in Black clothing, obsessing over death, and even being caught cutting herself in the bathroom of their New York apartment one too many times by Charles.

He looked online and found Lydia a psychiatrist to help her get her mind off of being depressed and attempting to take her life. When that didn’t provide any results, he’d searched on the internet again and found something even better for Lydia: a Life Coach.

‘That better work,’ he thought to himself.

* * *

Charles and Lydia entered the office a week later, Lydia nervous and Charles hopeful that this would be good for Lydia. Checking in, the remaining Deetzes sat down and waited to be called back.

They were called back by a woman in her forties who had Red hair tied back in a bun on the top of her head, her smile bright as she caught eyes with Charles and Lydia.

Charles felt butterflies in his stomach as he gazed at the Life Coach standing there and waiting for him and his daughter to head on back with her. Charles shook his head as he and Lydia stood and went back with the Life Coach, which Charles learned was single and named Delia.

Charles explained everything that had happened, from he and Lydia losing Emily to Lydia dressing differently and obsessing over death. Delia listened carefully, nodding every time Charles finished speaking.

The end of the session, Charles had fallen deeply in love with Delia and she the same with him. She’d decided to continue to Life Coach Lydia at the latter’s home without Lydia knowing that her father and Life Coach were having a secret affair.

* * *

It was the end of the current School year when Charles decided to move himself, Lydia, and Delia out of New York City and to the town of Winter River, Connecticut. Lydia thought that they were going to stay there temporarily, not knowing that they were actually moving instead of renting the house.

Lydia lay on her back on top of a couch that had just been put down, a rose clutched in her hands. “Hey dad?” she asked, “does this couch make me look dead?”

He stopped, turning and facing her. “I’m not going to answer a question like that.”

“Lydia...” Delia came over as Lydia sat upright on the couch. “We talked about this sad, sady, sadness stuff. Come on...don’t you remember what I said?”

“Yeah, you said ‘stop acting so weird. I need this job’.”

“No! No no,” Delia said, “I am positive I quoted my guru Otho who said ‘sadness is like kale salad, no one likes it, throw it out.”

“Dad?” Lydia turned to her father. “How long do we have to stay here?”

“About that,” Charles said. “I thought that after everything we’ve been through, well, I thought that we both could use a fresh start so I’m selling the house! We’re going to live here!”

“What?” Lydia shouted, staring at her dad. “Dad, no, no, no. You can’t do that! Dead mom loved that house!”

“Dead mom? Lydia-.”

“You never talk about her!” Lydia retorted.

“It’s because I’m trying not to,” Charles said. He turned to Delia. “Delia, do your job please. Life Coach her.”

“Knock, knock. Who’s there? Happiness!”

“No! Dad, please!” Lydia complained. “My whole life is in that house. Remember when we moved into our house in New York City, and it was all run down and horrible. And we didn’t know if we were going to get through it. And mom said ‘let’s clean up.’ And she made us listen to that song she always loved.” She began to hum.

“Lydia,” Charles began. “You have moped around for months dressed in black, obsessing about death. Do you know how many times I caught you trying to cut yourself? Lots!”

“I’m in mourning.”


End file.
